94 3.4 TROUBLE
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Joined: Aug 2007
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94 3.4 TROUBLE
So i bought my first car over the summer. Im only 18 years old and a senior in highschool so my budget was limited.
I bought a 1994 v6 3.4 Automatic Camaro for $2000. It had around 115k and 116k miles on it. I figured I was getting a deal, if I wasnt, too late now lol.
It was doing perfect over the whole summer and one day i came home from a baseball game and parked it like I always do, and then I go to start it that night to go out with my buddy and my camaros downfall began. It was kind of wet that day, not hardcore rain but just wet. When i started the car i knew something was up bc it sounded completely different and when i put it from Park to Drive it felt as though the car was trying to move like it didnt want me to be on the brake and when i finally let off the brake and went it had crappy acceleration and was slow as heck and not normal. I just told my dad and then we took my buddies car.
My dad is smart but he isnt a mechanic or anything. He thought maybe it was the spark plugs so we changed them and it was completely the same. We did find a bad plug that was darker then the others but in the end it didnt help. My car was a lot louder than it had been previously and we found out my muffler had a hole in it so we got a new one and put it on and it wasnt as loud but still not the same.
A guy my dad works with tried to run tests on the computer or something and then he said he didnt find anything besides usual stuff thats been there for years..sooooo we didnt really worry about it bc my car ran, and that was good enough for me.
The bad stuff: Car would shake real bad whenever i would go over 45 MPH and like it was really annoying and it just felt like it was gonna explode it was shaking so bad.
Getting better...my dads friend knew a guy who worked out of his garage on cars and we had him look at it. he changed the sparkplugs and that didnt work..he tried running tests on the computer and it didnt read anything, he said he had it looked at at 3 other places and they didnt get anything either..he told my dad to go to the junkyard and get one vs buying one brand new and my dad got one for $30..he gave it to the guy and he put it in and it ran codes but i forget wat it told him was wrong..the guy said he thought about it and realized something was wrong with my catalytic converter and said we could get a new one for like 400 bucks or put a pipe on for like 25..my dad just told him to put the pipe on..so that was the most recent thing weve done to it..the guy said he just wanted 200 bucks for everything and he spent hours upon hours trying to figure out was wrong so i think it was worth it
End Result: The car is running extremely better, it doesnt shake, its a lot quicker, and it isnt extremely loud, but its aloud that sounds cool, not a loud that sounds like something will fall off..it also seems to get a littlebetter mpg..
now i just want to know what you all think, i know very little about cars..but was this the right way to fix it? what couldve happened? and like is my car just a piece of crap or wat? is there anything else that should be done?
thanks for reading this, thanksa lot.i greatly appreciate just taking the time out to read it.
I bought a 1994 v6 3.4 Automatic Camaro for $2000. It had around 115k and 116k miles on it. I figured I was getting a deal, if I wasnt, too late now lol.
It was doing perfect over the whole summer and one day i came home from a baseball game and parked it like I always do, and then I go to start it that night to go out with my buddy and my camaros downfall began. It was kind of wet that day, not hardcore rain but just wet. When i started the car i knew something was up bc it sounded completely different and when i put it from Park to Drive it felt as though the car was trying to move like it didnt want me to be on the brake and when i finally let off the brake and went it had crappy acceleration and was slow as heck and not normal. I just told my dad and then we took my buddies car.
My dad is smart but he isnt a mechanic or anything. He thought maybe it was the spark plugs so we changed them and it was completely the same. We did find a bad plug that was darker then the others but in the end it didnt help. My car was a lot louder than it had been previously and we found out my muffler had a hole in it so we got a new one and put it on and it wasnt as loud but still not the same.
A guy my dad works with tried to run tests on the computer or something and then he said he didnt find anything besides usual stuff thats been there for years..sooooo we didnt really worry about it bc my car ran, and that was good enough for me.
The bad stuff: Car would shake real bad whenever i would go over 45 MPH and like it was really annoying and it just felt like it was gonna explode it was shaking so bad.
Getting better...my dads friend knew a guy who worked out of his garage on cars and we had him look at it. he changed the sparkplugs and that didnt work..he tried running tests on the computer and it didnt read anything, he said he had it looked at at 3 other places and they didnt get anything either..he told my dad to go to the junkyard and get one vs buying one brand new and my dad got one for $30..he gave it to the guy and he put it in and it ran codes but i forget wat it told him was wrong..the guy said he thought about it and realized something was wrong with my catalytic converter and said we could get a new one for like 400 bucks or put a pipe on for like 25..my dad just told him to put the pipe on..so that was the most recent thing weve done to it..the guy said he just wanted 200 bucks for everything and he spent hours upon hours trying to figure out was wrong so i think it was worth it
End Result: The car is running extremely better, it doesnt shake, its a lot quicker, and it isnt extremely loud, but its aloud that sounds cool, not a loud that sounds like something will fall off..it also seems to get a littlebetter mpg..
now i just want to know what you all think, i know very little about cars..but was this the right way to fix it? what couldve happened? and like is my car just a piece of crap or wat? is there anything else that should be done?
thanks for reading this, thanksa lot.i greatly appreciate just taking the time out to read it.
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Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 13
RE: 94 3.4 TROUBLE
Hey there... It really sounds like an ignition problem, considering you first noticed it when it was raining. Ignition problems sometimes set it when it's damp out.
I definitely wouldn't have thought it was the cat convertor unless it was rattling or I got a bad reading on a smog inspection. Here's what I would have looked at (and I'm a newbie, so I might be off...)
- Check the ignition wires and distributor cap. You can swap out the spark plugs for new ones, but if your ignition wires and distributor cap are worn out, the plugs won't make a bit of difference.
- Check the fuel filter. If its clogged or damaged, it's done.
- Check your oxygen sensor and make sure it's still getting proper voltage. If it's not, you could have a jacked up mixture
This is all work that can make a surprising improvement in performance for less than 100 bux. I consider swapping out the cat when I either know for sure that its no good or all else fails.
I definitely wouldn't have thought it was the cat convertor unless it was rattling or I got a bad reading on a smog inspection. Here's what I would have looked at (and I'm a newbie, so I might be off...)
- Check the ignition wires and distributor cap. You can swap out the spark plugs for new ones, but if your ignition wires and distributor cap are worn out, the plugs won't make a bit of difference.
- Check the fuel filter. If its clogged or damaged, it's done.
- Check your oxygen sensor and make sure it's still getting proper voltage. If it's not, you could have a jacked up mixture
This is all work that can make a surprising improvement in performance for less than 100 bux. I consider swapping out the cat when I either know for sure that its no good or all else fails.
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